Google has finally heralded the grand opening of its much awaited eBookstore. Calling today "the first page in a new chapter of our mission to improve access to the cultural and educational treasures we know as books," Google is officially taking aim at a fragmented publishing market presently dominated by your dwindling bookstore chains and a host of electronic eReaders, like Amazon's Kindle and the iPad.

Hitting the ground running, Google's new eBookstore debuts with a reader's menu of more than three million titles. Where Google is looking to really shine is in the fact that the online search giant designed Google eBooks to be "open." That is, there will be no shortage of devices compatible with Google eBooks. Consequently, you can buy, store and read Google eBooks in the cloud. And based on Google's policy of "inclusion," the clouds will be full of content. Helping drive the swelling growth of the eBookstore's inventory is Google's emerging relationship with "independent booksellers," a situation that will ensure smaller publishers and publishing houses aren't completely overshadowed by the big boys and girls in print.

Not surprisingly, Google is simultaneously rolling out an iOS app for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch users so that Apple customers can access the new Google eBookstore at will. As of this writing, however, the app hasn't yet been given the green light for entry into the App Store.

If you're wondering, titles in the Google eBookstore are priced comparably to those found in Apple's iBookstore. To read more about the launch of Google's eBookstore, check out the company's formal announcement this morning on the official Google blog.

Nice but don't think apple will allow it in AppStore conflicting apples interest

It's already in the app store. With the recent changes to their terms and conditions for app devs, like tooth said, there are plenty of apps such as the Kindle, Google Voice, etc. that are now allowed in.

It's already in the app store. With the recent changes to their terms and conditions for app devs, like tooth said, there are plenty of apps such as the Kindle, Google Voice, etc. that are now allowed in.

It's a cool idea, but their major selling point seems to be bookmark syncing (saving the pages you have read between devices). I am not certain how many people would hop from device to device. I would just read off of my phone. That said, I guess people might go from tablet to phone and back, but I just don't see many people reading an ebook on a laptop.

Originally Posted by billchase2

Huh, so you can read the books in the app... yet it exits you to Safari to purchase the books. Odd.

Edit: Wow, and no horizontal mode? Back to iBooks...

Edit 2: Some of the books only have the scanned pages, making it nearly impossible to read on the iPhone due to the smaller screen. Double fail.

So the scanned books... are they available in ibooks? If not, it isn't quite a fair critique IMO. I can see some using landscape mode, but I surely never do (don't have an ipad or tablet), so it wouldn't bother me.

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i think the ease of being able to read the book on nearly any device is whats going to stay big for these companies. With a transition from paper to ereaders, there needs to be a certain standard or something other wise some books will be for kindle and not ibooks and some for google books and not ibooks. But we know apple will never get on that train